Are Blogs Still A Thing?

It is not exactly a state secret that I haven’t been actively updating the N Judah Chronicles for some time now. Seems like every week or two someone asks me “Hey, are you still doing that blog thing about the Muni?” and my response, more often than not has been “Are blogs still a thing?”

That’s the joke answer. However, we’ve gone through yet another wave of Significant Change to what’s online, from the ways people can express themselves, to the devices used to access such things, and so on. It is not necessary to go into the details, but it impacted whether I wanted to expend the time and energy on something longer than a snarky Tweet or an Instagram post.

Both are easier to do, and firing off a good one makes you feel good for a few moments, like you “did” something. Then, of course, it vanishes as the next eleventy billion Tweets, Instagrams, Snapchats, and whatever else the geniuses develop comes along.

Twitter, in particular, used to be fun, especially in a hyper-connected city like San Francisco. When the N would have a big ol’ fail in the morning, there would be an army of Twitter friends ready to “crowdsource the mundane” (as one astute Reader of the Blog put it), and there was a genuine community of bloggers and Twitterers around town that formed a sort of online community, which made it more fun.

Despite all these new outlets, things haven’t been getting better in this theoretical San Francisco Golden Age we live in, particularly if you would like to get around the city or the Bay Area, car or no car. Twitter has become a terrible place/way to have discussions on topics that actually matter.

Between the incredibly short message length and the tendency toward the slogan, or the nasty quip, a lot is said, but nothing of importance. (Don’t even get me started on how infinitely stupid Twitter is for a serious discussion, it’s a shit pile of unfun.) It has been nice to be honored by online outlets as a “San Francisco Twitter to Follow,” but I can dish up Twitter bullsh*t as well as anyone, too.

However, we have a significant election ahead of us, nationally and locally. There’s a lot at stake, and frankly, we can’t afford to piss away complicated issues in a cloud of nonsense, all 140 characters or less. Nor can we allow people a pass just because the “City Family” says so.

I do not claim to have all the answers, nor am I so snooty that I think anyone’s sitting there, hitting “refresh” on the blog hoping it’ll be updated again. In addition to writing about the usual (Muni, the neighborhood, etc) I’m going to start writing more about local politics as well. If you don’t want to read those, just skip past them, and check out an Instagram I took of a dog or something. It’ll be fine. If you like it, great, if not, there’s literally a billion other people and things you can listen to instead. Enjoy!

PS: I know I said some of this before last fall, but things are much better now, and while Neko Atsume is fun, it’s not the only thing to do with a Pocket Supercomputer.